Waterkloof four man loses parole bid

Pretoria - Frikkie du Preez, one of the Waterkloof four, was told on Wednesday that his bid to have his parole reinstated failed.

“It was refused on new grounds,” his lawyer, Oelof de Meyer, told the Pretoria News, but he did not want to comment on what the “new grounds” were.

“I cannot comment any further on the matter at this stage,” he said.

Du Preez was given a ray of hope last month when North Gauteng High Court Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann ordered that a newly constituted parole board had to convene within 21 days of his order to reconsider Du Preez’s parole.

This was after the judge had set aside an earlier decision by the former board, which revoked his parole.

He found that the decision of that board, for Du Preez to spend another year in prison, was fundamentally flawed.

But his latest bid to be released on parole on Wednesday also failed, although he was represented by two top city advocates - Christiaan Sevenster and Jaco Roux.

Du Preez and Christoff Becker, who were serving a 12-year jail sentence for murdering a homeless man, were released on parole in February this year.

They were back in prison five days later after video footage came to light, suggesting the two were having a party in their cell before their release.

The allegations included that they had an illegal cellphone with them and had used alcohol.

The pair vehemently denied these allegations.

While they have not been charged with any of these alleged violations, it is understood that the parole board found that Du Preez was guilty as he appeared in the video and that he “leaked the video to the media”.

Becker, who is being held at the maximum prison in Kokstad, earlier lost his court bid to have the decision to have his parole revoked, reconsidered. The court found his application was not urgent.